China is an absolutely unique land. Often considered the world’s oldest extant civilization, it’s much like the alligator: It has endured while rivals have gone extinct. It certainly aims to outlast the United States, too, and advances numerous schemes to achieve that end.
Thus does the story about an alleged Chinese biological lab discovered in a Las Vegas Airbnb house assume extra significance. And now there’s a new twist: It’s claimed that some of the guests staying at that Airbnb fell deathly ill.
Perhaps more troubling still is that this would be the second illegal Chinese biolab discovered. The first was found in Fresno, California, in 2023.
This prompted China expert Gordon Chang to wonder, “This makes two Chinese biological weapons labs on our soil. Are there more?”
This also is, as with the tale of China-based, anti-ICE protest financier Neville Roy Singham, an ignored story. It should be front page.
Moreover, the story must additionally perhaps be viewed against the backdrop of wider Chinese subversion efforts. These include censoring our movies, inserting Beijing’s propaganda into our schools, and instituting “Chinese police stations” within our borders.
What Happens in Vegas May Not Stay in Vegas — When Pathogens Are Happening
The Los Angeles Times reported on the biolab story Wednesday:
A suspected biolaboratory found in a Las Vegas home and now under investigation by authorities is linked to the owner of an unauthorized California biolab who was arrested in 2023, officials said Monday.
SWAT officers served a search warrant on Saturday after receiving a tip that a biolab was located at the house on the city’s east side, according to a statement from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. Officers took one person, the property manager of the residence, into custody but there was no immediate information about possible charges.
… Sheriff Kevin McMahill said the home is owned by a man who was arrested in 2023 on charges of not obtaining the proper permits to manufacture tests for COVID-19, pregnancy and HIV, and mislabeling some of the kits for a biolab in Reedley, Calif.
The owner, Jia Bei Zhu, is scheduled to go on trial in that case in April.
As to what was discovered, Fox News wrote Tuesday:
In the garage, investigators found multiple refrigerators with vials of unknown liquids, unknown liquids in gallon-size containers, a centrifuge and other laboratory equipment, authorities said.
“Some of that evidence included biological material and liquids that were meticulously collected and sent to FBI labs for testing,” police said in a statement.
More than 1,000 pieces of evidence were collected in total.
A Different Kind of Vegas Vacation
As for some of the guests of the Airbnb in question, their Vegas Vacation wasn’t as amusing as Chevy Chase’s. As 8 News Now reported Tuesday:
We’ve learned a person tipped off the FBI in early January that that garage was locked and that there were fridges running inside, a person telling those investigators that it smelled like a hospital with a, quote, foul, stale, stagnant air smell. Documents say several days after entering that garage, two people became, quote, deathly ill. They said they couldn’t get out of bed, and several other people have gotten sick there before.
The 8 News Now report follows.
And according to author Brigitte Gabriel (tweet below), “Investigators [have] linked the lab to the CCP” (Chinese Communist Party).
Furthermore, according to commentator Monica Showalter, who references the tweet below, the Biden administration did little about the threat.
There’s also the following alleged FBI document, Showalter points out (which, do note, is still unverified).
Then there’s the tweet below from Michael Lucci, founder and CEO of the nonprofit State Armor Action. He warns that the Vegas biolab’s proximity to a U.S. military base may be no coincidence.
Finally, there’s the following from journalist Walter Kirn. He theorizes that other biolabs could exist and may be part of an asymmetrical warfare/terrorism threat.
Overblown?
If much of this sounds fevered or even gratuitously conspiratorial, perhaps it is. A more mundane explanation could be that Jia Bei Zhu is just another Chinese businessman flouting rules and cutting corners. (Chinese products are notorious for being cheaply, and sometimes dangerously, made with a profit-over-people mentality.)
Yet there is cause for concern. As one respondent put it under the Chang tweet, “We really cannot trust Chinese who come in. They are nice people, highly intelligent and extremely LOYAL to the CCP.” Is this mere prejudice?
Well, while it’s entirely human to project one’s own mindset onto others, realize that Chinese civilization is nothing like ours. You can get filthy rich in America by hating the country and flaunting your disloyalty. China, however, is a relatively homogeneous land with strong feelings of national, cultural, and, yes, racial chauvinism.
Oh, it’s not just that displays of disloyalty can get Chinese citizens scorned and ostracized — and worse. (They have a “social credit” system, you know.) It’s not just that Beijing is infamous for spying on its own people with a historically unprecedented surveillance state. It’s also this:
A Beijing law dictates that every Chinese company and all of China’s 1.4 billion citizens are required to, at the government’s behest, engage in spying for the regime.
Yes, you read that right. And that means your intelligent, good-natured Chinese-national neighbor could be “asked” by Beijing to spy on you. What are the odds he’ll say no?
Projecting Soft Power
There are already, too, the aforementioned efforts to project what the Chinese call “soft power.” A list:
So whatever the “Chinese biolabs” are, something is certain. As Showalter sums up, the
Trump administration cannot afford to go the way of the Biden botch-up, and ignore the matter as Hunter Biden took his “gifts” [from Beijing]. The Chicoms are dead serious about defeating us in war and they may have already started it without telling us.
They also play the long game. After all, Chinese civilization is almost 4,000 years old. Beijing is surely betting, too, that they’ll be around for another thousand — and that we’ll become a footnote in history.
